Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Would anyone by any chance have the Shimano XTR m970 crank removal tool? Thanks

Nice! Knowing Surly steerer tubes, you could probably lose about 500g by cutting that down ;-)

I think that beats @Doctor_Cake's CrossCheck for epic spacer stack funs

anyone doing battle on the beach next week?

For proper spacer-towers, you only have to do a brief search on MTBR....

Yes

Me too.

Anyone point me in the direction of reasonably long distance routes (60-80km) quickly accessible by train from central London?

I think @Howard and @umop3pisdn did quite a long route around the Surrey Hills, so they might have a Garmin route for that? There's so much you can link together into a long ride around there.

Saying that, I do find the riding around the South Downs just a little better than the North Downs. So many great little trails criss-crossing over the South Downs Way and they've tended to be less busy, in my experience.

Indeed
.

Looks like a fun route.

Thanks Howard, Dorking it is, provided the rain isn't too bad.

Was probably the best ride I did last year - glorious weather, dry trails, Summer Lightning lined with flowers (ah!).

Only downer was trashing my rear rim but it held out for the rest of the ride.

Yep. I had a bunch of spacers but no hacksaw, and I wanted to ride it. Still haven't got around to trimming it, but I will be leaving a couple of spacers on top just in case I want to raise the bars for bikepacking setups.

Front tyre still hasn't settled so going to re-do the ghetto tubeless with electrical-tape-rim-strip as per the successful rear, and Real Stan's rather than Fake Stan's.

Just to highlight the disappointing finishing kit on the Surly, my partner was suffering from New Bike Envy so I got her a Norco Charger, which, despite being half the RRP, has much nicer kit e.g. two-bolt seatpost, stem with bolt-holes that line up, and a saddle that isn't designed for a BMX, and QRs on front wheel and seatpost. Just a minor grumble.

Great Polish video, slow to start but very fun

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/inside-the-biotop-3-full-2015.html

Hopefully this isn't against the rules but I'm after a mtb. Anything?

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/264559/#comment12163346

That was fucking awesome!

Team Robot says exactly what I thought:
http://theteamrobot.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/boost-14815x110mm.html

Don't we already have 150×12 and 110×20 for anybody who finds XC hubs too weedy?

Was probably the best ride I did last year - glorious weather, dry trails, Summer Lightning lined with flowers (ah!).

You missed out the amazing company!

Heh - OK the company was great, too.

(I thought that was a given!)

I'm sure you can ram a 150x12 hub into a 148x12 dropout with a little persuasion!

So much this.

This may be a UTFS situation, perhaps someone could point me in the direction of the right thread if so.
I'm looking to add an MTB to the stable, just something for exploring woods etc around here, maybe a bit of riding on the North York Moors. My budget is around £300 which I'm hoping will get me a decent used (possibly older) hardtail.
What eBay searches should I be doing? I know people speak highly of old stumpjumpers and that's actually what I rode in my youth when I rode MTB a little. I'm totally out of the loop now, however, and have no idea what to look for second hand.
I'd rather get something decent second hand than something middling new (and increase my budget).

So, suggestions please.

Ta.

A reasonable spec Boardman that has been bought on cycle to work and sold due to lack of time etc.

But then I'd have to ride a Boardman!

What should I be looking for as signs of quality? I know about tubing and running gear but I've never ridden with sus forks.